historical – 20th century

Word Count: Click here to reveal18000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: In 1947, James “Jimmy” Bacon becomes involved in a violent workplace altercation fuelled by a PTSD-induced rage. His boss, a fellow war-veteran, tells him to take a few months off work, have a holiday, go somewhere warm, and get his head together.   Jimmy decides to take a coastal steamer to the northernmost outpost of Australia, Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, to visit the grave of his oldest friend, Sandy, killed during the Japanese bombing of the city in 1942. Upon arriving, he discovers that Sandy’s death is not as simple as military records seemed to indicate. After learning that Sandy’s grave contains only an arm with no distinguishing features, he starts asking questions around town in order to find out what really happened to his mate.   The more he asks, the more he discovers that Darwin is less about post-war reconstruction and more about drugs, gambling, and the excessive consumption of alcohol. It’s a lawless city where 95% of the population is male and prostitution is banned, creating a thriving underworld where rough frontier-town blokes and men from the armed forces are doing more with each other than having a beer and passing the time of day.   While digging deeper, Jimmy discovers a terrible truth, arousing the interest of men who would do anything to keep the past a secret—men who consider his life of little value. Jimmy is forced to rely on quick thinking and his army training when death comes looking for him in the dead of night.

Word Count: Click here to reveal151000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Non Binary (Click here to hide)

Summary: Queer British Lovecraftian historical romantic suspense set in 1920s London. Lew Tyler is dragged from 2016 to 1920 by an accident with border magic whilst he’s searching for his missing friend. He’s struggling to get to grips with life a century before he was born.  Detective Alec Carter is trying to solve gruesome murders in his patch of London, weighed down with exhaustion and a jaded attitude to most of his fellow humans after four years of war. In the middle of a murder investigation that involves wild magic, mysterious creatures and illegal sexual desire, will Alec and Lew work out who is safe to trust? Sergeant Will Grant, Alec’s right-hand man, is drawn to the mysterious Fenn. Is Fenn a man or a woman? Does Will care? And Fenn…Fenn has a secret. They live beyond the border between 1920s London and the magical Outlands and they need to get home. Are they prepared to achieve that by double crossing Alec, Will and Lew? Two couples hold the fabric of reality in their hands. Will it make them or break them? Buy London Calling now if you like murder, time-travel, grumpy detectives, the blues, magic, gay romance, m/enby romance, tea and not-quite-elves. It features Lost in Time, Shadows on the Border & The Hunted and the Hind (which are also available in audio and on sale at Authors Direct!)  "Wow, what a read… time-travel, fantasy, murder, MM-romance… everything I like, rolled in to one!"

Word Count: Click here to reveal68000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: They'll take a leap into the unknown to protect the world. There's something seriously wrong with Earth's magic. A demon has appeared unsummoned out of thin air, familiars can't return Home, and as Grim points out, rats smell like summer in the middle of winter. Grim and Pip can deal with rats; Silas can banish one wayward demon. But soon there are other demons, more each day, and Silas's old mansion is full of mysteries. He and Darien will need their familiars, their friends, plus a whole lot of luck, as they search beyond Earth for the forces that have changed their world. And to have any chance of getting safely home, Silas will have to confront a past he's avoided for ten long years.

Word Count: Click here to reveal50,100 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Bisexual, Gay, Pansexual, Transgender (Click here to hide)

Summary: Village nurse Walter Kennett is content with his makeshift found-family in tiny Bradfield. However one midsummer morning a body is found floating in the village duck pond, dead by magical means. Detective Simon Frost arrives in Bradfield to investigate a inexplicable murder. The evidence seems to point to Lucille Hall-Bridges, who lives with doctor Sylvia Marks and nurse Walter Kennett at Courtfield House. Simon isn’t happy—he doesn’t believe Lucy is a murderer but  he’s sure the three of them are hiding something. In the meantime, the draw he feels toward Walter takes him by surprise. Walter is in a dilemma, concealing Sylvia and Lucy’s relationship and not knowing how much to tell Frost about the paranormal possibilities of the murder. He isn’t interested in going to bed with anyone—he’s got a complicated life and has to know someone really well before he falls between the sheets. He’s taken aback by his own attraction to Detective Frost and angry when Frost appears to twist the spark between them to something transactional in nature. Will Walter be satisfied to stay on the periphery of Lucy and Sylvia’s love affair, a welcome friend but never quite included? Or is it time for him to strike out and embark on  a relationship of his own? The second in the Bradfield trilogy, set in the Border Magic universe.

Word Count: Click here to reveal311000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay, Lesbian (Click here to hide)

Summary: Everyone has secrets… but some are fatal. 1932, London. Late one December night Simon Sampson stumbles across the body of a woman in an alleyway. Her death is linked to a plot by right-wing extremists to assassinate the King on Christmas Day. Simon resolves to do his patriotic duty and unmask the traitors. But Simon Sampson lives a double life. Not only is he a highly respected BBC radio announcer, but he’s also a man who loves men, and as such must live a secret life. His investigation risks revealing his other life and with that imprisonment under Britain’s draconian homophobic laws of the time. He faces a stark choice: his loyalty to the King or his freedom. This is the first in a new series from award-winning author David C. Dawson. A richly atmospheric novel set in the shadowy world of 1930s London, where secrets are commonplace, and no one is quite who they seem.

Word Count: Click here to reveal35000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: What started as a vacation for Stiles Long, Michael O’Leary, and Lizzie Ferguson, soon turns to murder? Aboard the ocean liner, the Mauretania, every luxury is at their fingertips. Sumptuous food, comfortable staterooms, dancing, card games, and anything else your first class heart can expire too. What the trio did not expect was a face from a past assignment to follow them on their cruise. James Stark was the lowest of men. A blackmailer with a heart of ice. But who hated him enough to kill him? The list of suspects all circle around the same dining room table, including Stiles, Michael, and Lizzie. They have less than two days before they dock in Liverpool to find the killer. If they don’t, he’ll walk off the boat Scott-free. Nights of romance, declaring love, dancing in the ballroom, playing cards, a storm that nearly takes the life of one of our trio, and a murderer among them, all makes for an adventure on the deep sea.

Word Count: Click here to reveal127000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: “There’s no deal unless you tell me who killed Lucretia, Thomas! For the love of God, I have to know—” “She was shot by an assassin.” “But who was this assassin? Who shot her?” he demanded again angrily, leaning forward over the table. “I did,” I said, after a suitably dramatic pause. He threw his head back and laughed loudly, his arms crossed on his chest. “You?” he said once he’d regained his breath. “You? Thomas Haupner, the violinist? The would-be army officer from some stupid, derelict relic of the British Empire, a trained assassin?” After returning from a secret mission in occupied France for His Royal Highness, George, the Duke of Kent, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Haupner is looking forward to a cup of tea, a hot bath, and the sleepy head of his American lover, Major Henry Reiter on his shoulder when he wakes up the next morning. However, along with items Tommy has recovered for the duke, he has also discovered a secret stash of documents, which, when opened, prove to be a poisoned chalice. Tommy and Shorty find themselves caught up in a dangerous web of lies, enemy agents, assassins, and traitors. In an effort to save the reputations of not only their friends, but men and women high in both society and in the government, they themselves become victims of I.K.S., a former World War One international extortion ring, which has risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes of bomb-devastated London.

Word Count: Click here to reveal79802 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealDemisexual, Gay, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: What if those who stand by you are the ones who betray you? France, 1944 Sometimes the most desperate struggles take place far from the battlefield, and what happens in secret can change the course of history. Victory is close at hand, but freedom remains frustratingly just beyond the grasp of German physicist Dr Kristopher Lehrer, Resistance fighter Michel, and the remaining members of the team sent by the Allies—Captain Matt Bryant, Sergeant Ken Lowe, and Dr Zhou Liang—as they fight to keep the atomic plans from the Nazis. The team reaches France and connects with members of Michel’s French Resistance cell in Normandy. Allied troops are poised to liberate France, and rescue is supposedly at hand. However, Kristopher is no longer sure the information he carries in his memory is safe with either side. When Standartenführer Holm and his men finally catch up with their prey, the team is left with few options. With a traitor in their midst, who can they trust? Kristopher must become something he is not in order to save the man he loves. Death is biding his time, and sacrifices must be made for any of them to have the futures they want. Author’s note: This is the second edition of Comes a Horseman. The first edition was released by another publishing house.  This story has been re-edited, and uses UK spelling to reflect its setting.

Word Count: Click here to reveal50,100 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealLesbian, Pansexual (Click here to hide)

Summary: The quiet village of Bradfield should offer Dr Sylvia Marks the refuge she seeks when she returns home from her time in a field hospital in France in 1918. However, she is still haunted by the disappearance of her ambulance-driver lover two years previously ,and settling down as a village doctor is more difficult than she realised it would be after the excitement of front-line medicine. Then curious events at a local farm, mysterious lights and a hallucinating patient’s strange illness make her revisit her assessment of Anna’s death on the battlefield. Lucille Hall-Bridges is at a loose end now her nursing work is finished. She felt useful as a nurse and now she really doesn’t know what to do with her life. She hopes going to stay with her friend Sylvia for a while will help her find a way forward. And if that involves staying at Bradfield with Sylvia…then that’s fine with her. Will the arrival of Lucy at Bradfield be the catalyst that allows both women to lay their wartime stresses to rest? Can Sylvia move on from her love affair with Anna and find happiness with Lucy, or is she still too entwined in the unresolved endings of the past? The first in the Bradfield trilogy, set in the Border Magic universe. See all the books on my website. CW: Mention of domestic violence.

Word Count: Click here to reveal54000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Silas Thornwood's worst nightmare has come to life. Darien's familiar Pip is gravely injured, and Darien and Jasper have been kidnapped. Someone ruthless and violent is holding the man Silas loves prisoner, for purposes he doesn't want to imagine. Silas needs help from his friends to locate and rescue Darien. And when he does, those responsible― whether sorcerer, human, or demon― are going to be truly, utterly sorry…

Word Count: Click here to reveal8300 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Information not available

Summary: England, 1910 It's Valentine's Day and Gareth, footman at the local manor, is determined to make his true feelings known for his companion, Robbie. Robbie has big dreams for his future and Gareth is hoping he can be a part of them. Armed with a box of chocolates, a solicitor's letter of good news, and hopeful determination, Gareth goes to meet Robbie for lunch. But will Robbie be as eager as Gareth to make their situation permanent? Or will the pressure of having to keep their love a secret be too much for their dreams to handle? 'All Tall Flowers' is a sweet, historical romance short with a happy and hopeful ending. It is a short story of about 8300 words or approx. 25 pages in print.

Word Count: Click here to reveal55689 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Gay retro with a twist For PIs Michael McCree and Simon Hart, life has become…if not humdrum, then unusually calm. Routine cases, daily training with their band of back-street urchins, the incessant games of sex and innuendo—all of it takes on a keener edge when they learn that an arch enemy has somehow slipped through a crack in Ireland’s Old Chokey Prison. Instead of quietly leaving the country, their implacable opponent is out for blood…namely, the blood of two sleuths named Michael and Simon. The enemy is desperate, and greedy too. Some of the the ones fighting alongside the PIs are excellent, some are rather good, and a few are outright dishonest. Nothing stirs their imagination and, um, base instincts like raw danger. Both men find themselves sliding into more than one crack in the Roaring Twenties city of Dun Linden as they alternately evade and pursue, duck and dodge, parry and thrust—starting in the bedroom of their own Victorian flat.  

Word Count: Click here to reveal133,317 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay, Straight (Click here to hide)

Summary: Sidebars are stories set in the Spy vs. Spook/Mann of My Dreams universe. The stories in this book are told from the points of view of Nigel Mann, Bryan Sebring, Jack Matheson—Wills’s dad—a pair of jeans, Michael Shaw, and finally, Wills begins to tell his story. Solo Tu—Nigel Mann, known as the CIA’s own Mr. Freeze, and Portia Sebring, the Ice Princess of the NSA, might seem like a match made in the Arctic, but it’s exactly what Anthony Sebring wants for his daughter. This story starts the Sidebars, taking place in 1958. Chasing Rainbows—If they’re lucky, Sebrings find not only their “one” but their own HEA. However, not all are lucky. Bryan Sebring knows who his “one” is, but the stubborn man is reluctant to face facts. Bryan has the one; will he ever have the other? How to Handle a Gay Son—Jack Matheson learns Wills, his beloved oldest son is gay, and we see how he handles it. The Lick Me, Suck Me, Fuck Me Jeans—Wills’s jeans explain how his owner becomes pretty much irresistible while wearing them. Where Have You Been, Willie Boy?—Michael Shaw has been William Matheson’s best friend since they met in the sixth grade. Things change when they start college, helped along by those lick me, suck me, fuck me jeans Wills had been given for a birthday present. But Michael isn’t gay, and he won’t let anyone label him as queer, not even for his best friend. But will his determination drive away the one man he values above all others? Into the Lion’s Den—The first of Wills Matheson’s stories. We see his relationship with Michael Shaw, with his family, and eventually with the WBIS and Mark Vincent, who becomes his boss.

Word Count: Click here to reveal144000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Information not available

Summary: Halloran pulled the sheet down to the man’s waist. What I saw made me take a deep breath: the man’s throat was cut so deeply his head looked like it had almost been severed. “If you tell me this man was found in the public toilet behind the grandstand of Coogee Oval opposite where I live, I might just need a chair,” I said.   Clyde Smith’s quiet, happy life, in love for the first time, working as a private detective and journalist, is suddenly thrown into disarray by the appearance, after a three year hiatus, of a body bearing the distinctive hallmarks of a string of murders he hadn’t been able to solve when working in homicide. Forced to cooperate with the new detective sergeant who’d taken his place in the local cop shop, Clyde has to not only deal with the enormous chip on the young man’s shoulder, but also with a complex case that involves kidnapping, the re-emergence of the Silent Cop Killer, the historical abuse of young men and boys in orphanages across the State, and a ghost from the past who is out for revenge. Will Clyde and the new DS be able to find the killer before he finds them? Or will they be his final prize, the last victims in his string of grisly murders? Perhaps only the local psychic, owner of a Romany religious statue, the Gilded Madonna, can provide the clue that might ultimately solve the puzzle, but which will also lead Clyde and DS Dioli into mortal danger.

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Summary: It’s the summer of 1967 and the Sexual Offences Act has just decriminalized consensual gay sex in private between two men over twenty-one. Percy Wright and his friend Les Baker have both taken temporary jobs teaching English as a foreign language in London during their long summer break from teaching at a rural boarding school near Oxford. Percy is keen to soak up some theatre, music, and general culture, whilst Les is also keen to experience the varied gay social scene. When Les picks up a man called Phil at the box office of the Albert Hall when he goes to buy tickets to a Promenade Concert, Percy inadvertently gets thrown together with Adrian Framlingham, Phil’s friend. Adrian is all the things Percy likes in a man — funny, kind and steady. When Les gets hurt, Percy turns to Adrian for support, but as the end of the summer looms it seems as if their affair will come to a natural end. What will happen when Percy goes back to his everyday life as a house-master? Will he and Adrian stay in touch? Does he even want a long-distance relationship when arranging to meet someone for sex is still illegal, even if the act itself is not? Trigger warning: A secondary character suffers an off-screen sexual assault.

Word Count: Click here to reveal53000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: England, 1910 Monty, along with his best friend Bishop, investigates an odd seal-like creature swimming in Manchester Lake. The pair soon realize they've found a selkie when the magnificent animal transforms into the most gorgeous man either of them has ever seen. Determined to discover the origins of the mystical man, they bundle him into Bishop's brand-new electric automobile and whisk him off to London. There they find a host of distractions: a tastefully debauched house party hosted by silver-tongued aristocrats, and a queerly European-inspired novelty called the night club. Both are filled with a cast of characters sometimes amusing and sometimes frightening. And as the night unfolds, Monty comes face-to-face with ghoulish agents of the occult as well as revelations from the past. Most surprisingly of all, Monty finds himself falling for the beautiful creature from the lake, who seems equally interested in him. Can he really find himself in love with a man he has only just met? Or do they have a deeper connection which goes much further back? And what does it all have to do with the memories of his trip to Paris three years prior? The mystery of the selkie from Manchester Lake is only the beginning, and before their adventure is finished Monty will see the culmination of long suppressed secrets explode in a firestorm of magic and passion!

Word Count: Click here to reveal73994 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealDemisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Who do you trust when no one is who they seem? Germany 1944 Fleeing German physicist Dr Kristopher Lehrer and his lover, Resistance fighter Michel, are caught up in an Allied bombing campaign.  Separated from Michel after discovering an injured RAF pilot in the Black Forest, and pursued by the SS for the information he carries, Kristopher is frantic to reunite, unaware that Michel has been recruited by the Allies for a rescue mission. Time is running out. The Gestapo is closing in. How can they decide who to trust, when the dagger pointed at Kristopher’s back could be wielded by a friend? Author’s note: This is the third edition of Winter Duet. The first and second editions were released by another publishing house.  This story has been re-edited, and uses UK spelling to reflect its setting.

Word Count: Information not available

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Autumn 1989 begins as a season of loss for Handyman Ed and his life partner Rick. Their dear friend Doug passes away after a losing battle with AIDS. Effie Maude, the longtime Penfield Manor housekeeper, announces her retirement. Ed and Rick are exhausted and mournful, and despite the advice of friends and family, determined to continue with their regular responsibilities. Little things suddenly become big deals as they struggle to cope with the daily activities at Penfield Manor, and the result is an unfamiliar distance between them. Unexpected houseguests, the trials and tribulations of their foster son Rex, and a new overbearing client of Ed’s with murky intentions complicate their lives even more as they struggle to deal with their loss and find their way back to each other. Fortunately, Ed and Rick do not lack for good friends and compassionate families. While Ed’s mother Norma is preoccupied with her new cookie enterprise, the rest of the family and their friends Gordy, Pete, Muriel, and Dr. Paul are always available for companionship, advice, and the occasional kick in the butt. Ed may be balding, Rick may be covering his gray, and they might argue about who has the worse eyesight, but the genuine love and respect they share for each other enables them to survive the surprises and storms both inside and out through the final months of 1989 and come through it all, ready to meet a new decade.

Word Count: Click here to reveal128000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: As bombs rain down over London during the Blitz, Major Tommy Haupner negotiates the rubble-filled streets of Bloomsbury on his way to perform at a socialite party. The explosive event of the evening is not his virtuosic violin playing, but the 'almost-blond' American who not only insults him, but then steals his heart. The Seventh of December follows a few months in the lives of two Intelligence agents in the early part of World War Two. Set against the backdrop of war-torn occupied Europe, Tommy and his American lover, Henry Reiter, forge a committed relationship that is intertwined with intrigues that threaten the integrity of the British Royal Family and the stability of a Nation at war. Neither bombs nor bullets manage to break the bond that these men form in their struggle against Nazism and the powers of evil.

Word Count: Click here to reveal47,349 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: All the Honorable St. John Ashford ever wanted was his father’s love, but if he can’t have that, he’ll settle for being noticed. In an effort to do that, St. John sets his sights on Andrew Dorincourt, a man for whom the Viscount has nothing but disdain. Surely this will draw his father’s attention? Unfortunately, while Andrew seems willing to date him, he appears entirely disinterested in anything else. St. John knows it’s just a matter of time before all his plans going up in smoke, especially when Andrew becomes attracted to an exotic young man he rescued from Malossini’s House of Oddities. Robin Dorincourt is something of a playboy who enjoys nothing so much as flitting from one boyfriend to another. He doesn’t poach, though, and when he finds himself attracted to St. John Ashford, he does what he can to keep a healthy distance between them, using taunts and teasing. It’s difficult, until he realizes his brother is in love with someone else. Robin’s path toward St. John is clear, and he makes his move. But is his path as clear as he imagines? St. John might be as attracted to Robin as Robin is to him, but he’ll be damned if he allows himself to be passed from one brother to the other as if he’s nothing more than a poor second choice. Now it remains is for Robin to persuade St. John he’s no one’s second choice.